Rectangles is a time tracking visual where each rectangle represents 10 minutes of your day and the ones shaded in green display the time that has already passed. You are left with a perspective of how many more 10-minute blocks are left in your 24-hour day. It is inspired by Wait But Why’s article 100 Blocks a Day, which asks you to visualize your life on a grid and assess how you spend your 10-minute blocks. — CD

From James Clear’s must-read 3-2-1 Thursday newsletter, this way of seeing with a new filter:

Look around your environment.

Rather than seeing items as objects, see them as magnets for your attention. Each object gently pulls a certain amount of your attention toward it.

Whenever you discard something, the tug of that object is released. You get some attention back.

— MF

Without wasting a single second of your time, this fast-paced video by Ali Abdaall describes the best productivity apps and tools available today. Here is the highly-evolved tool set that he uses to get a lot of things done very efficiently. Well researched, well presented. — KK

According to the Michelle Drouin, the behavioral scientist who wrote this article “The Time Hack Everyone Should Know,” the key to taking your time back is not a phone detox or monitoring your screen time, it is to remember we have the tool of choice (use, omit or substitute) and to have a plan of action ready the next time you reach for your phone.

There are two types of action: omission — carving out some intimate times (e.g., dinner) and intimate spaces (e.g., at night in bed with a partner) without your phone, and substitution — swapping passive time on your phone with something that has proven health benefits, like a call to a friend or a walk. Then, each time you interact with your phone, you’ll have three choices: use, omit, or substitute. Remember: Shifting in small ways can lead to big changes in our daily timeclock.

She’s right when she says, “Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you’re being sucked into your technologies. Instead, see your tech use for what it is: you knowing what you like, and you choosing to engage in it (at the cost of other opportunities).”

— CD

If you’re facing a tough decision and can’t make up your mind, try some of the 10 pieces of advice from this 2007 New Scientist article. One tip I found especially interesting: “researchers found that sad people took time to consider the various alternatives on offer, and ended up making the best choices.” My takeaway from that is to avoid making a major decision when I’m elated. — MF

I have been using this Yapp Reminders app (iOS) for a few months now to send me “gentle” and “random” reminders throughout the day. You can create whatever message you would like to appear as a notification. Mine is a reminder to pull away from the screens and connect with something outside of myself. I have the notification setting switched to “softer reminder sounds” which sounds like a soft gong calling for me to pause and reflect. — CD

This 1-minute video by John Cleese is all you need to know about how to have productive (vs unproductive) meetings. One minute! Applies to zoom meetings, too. — KK

I’m a die-hard Google Calendar user, but my wife swears by Lett’s Classic Weekly/Monthly Planner. It’s about the size of a smartphone and each two-page spread displays seven days of the week plus a small monthly calendar for reference. She keeps it in her purse (along with a pencil). — MF

A small change in my workflow that has done wonders is writing out my to-do list at night instead of in the morning when I sit down to work. I adopted this new practice after reading 11 Artists Share the Bedtime Rituals That Keep Them Creative. At least two of the artists said they plan out their goals for their next day. I find that by doing this, my mind wanders less and I fall asleep faster. — CD

This nearly endless Reddit list of useful websites you probably don’t know about is full of gems. Here are a few I discovered:

• RSOE-EDIS is a live world map of emergencies. Icons represent fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, plane crashes, biological endemics, public safety incidents, animal attacks, and more.

• Read Something Great is a curated database of “timeless” articles.

• Flick Metrix is a list of the “top rated movies on Netflix, created by combing ratings from across the web.”

• myNoise has links to a wide variety of tunable white noise generators, ambient sounds, tinnitus reducers, and other interesting audio effects. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to a soothing soundscape called Anamnesis.

• Just the Recipe strips out everything from an online recipe besides the ingredients and instructions.

— MF

I will never hesitate to click on an article about productivity, because I always hope to discover at least one new way of looking at things. Here is an infographic titled How to Be Productive. In this case, it was “Assume you are right, when in doubt. Decisive is productive.” That makes sense to me. — CD

Here is a fun way to look ahead: Progress. Creative coder Neal Agarwal, who creates fun digital experiences, made this page so you can visualize time remaining until the next minute, day, month, holiday, moon phase, or until the sun dies. — CD

Dozens of different methods to increase one’s productivity are explained, compared, and ranked on this 16-minute video, The Best Productivity Hacks. The rankings are immaterial, but the brief explanations and evaluations are excellent and helpful. I learned a few new tricks, and was reminded of other hacks I had forgotten. It’s the best, most succinct roundup of productivity techniques I’ve seen. The few minutes I spent watching this have already repaid hours of better work. — KK

If you find yourself stuck, Untools.co is a collection of thinking tools to help you solve problems and make decisions. They were put together by a product designer who gets paid to problem solve but couldn’t find one place on the internet where tools like these were housed, so he created one. He does a great job of breaking these frameworks down with an outline and visuals. If you’re stuck but not sure where to start, here are some prompt questions to direct you. — CD

I use Dropbox for work and personal stuff so I was very happy to discover that Dropbox has added a new file conversion feature that can speed up my workflow. You can convert most file types into PDFs, JPEGs, or PNG files by accessing the file through Dropbox.com and then clicking on three dots next to the file and choosing “Save as…”. Here is a list of all the file types this works with. Unfortunately, this feature is not available in your desktop app, but still very helpful! Especially since I often have to convert those pesky WebP files into JPEGs. If you want more tips, here’s a list of 12 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Dropbox. — CD

After last weekend’s favorite note app recomendo. Multiple readers replied and recommended Simplenote as an alternative to Apple Notes and as a universal note-taking app. Reader Titus said, “I really like Simplenote. It provides a web interface as well as iOS and Android apps.” — CD

Recomendo reader Kartini Cooper asked to hear recommendations for a good note-taking app. I asked Kevin and Mark and their answer was the same as mine: Apple’s built-in Notes app. It’s the easiest and it syncs with all the other devices. I’ve gotten better at the up-keep — revisiting and culling my notes. My longest running notes that I pinned to the top are: To-do Today, Do Not Buy List, Questions I Have, Stress Note, and Things to tell my Therapist. I’ve also started organizing them into folders like: Recipes, Instructions, Crafts, Dreams, Writing Ideas, Rabbit Holes, and my favorite folder: Revelations — all my late-night genius ideas that are some times hilarious in the light of day. — CD

I spent some time writing out 100 wishes of mine on post-its inspired by this post: How and Why to do a Life Audit. The idea is to brainstorm your life goals, values, dreams and then categorize them based on themes and timeframes. The process allows for your priorities to come to light and helps you to see the patterns of your life. I could only fill 50 post-its in one sitting and as I discover new dreams of mine I go back to my remaining post-it pack to add more. I found that once I had written down all the desires inside of me and, in a sense, got them out of my system, it freed up space for completely new and weirdly fun wishes to show up. — CD

Four Note Boards is an online app and private text tool where you can paste and drag text around into one of four boxes. It’s perfect for when you need to compare blocks of text. I used it to compare and select poems for the new issue of Phantom Kangaroo. It’s simple and allows you to think multi-dimensionally. — CD

This is a great blog post on “How to Ask Useful Questions,” by Josh Kaufman. Poorly worded questions don’t respect the recipient’s time, energy or attention, and as a result often go unanswered. An inexperienced question might sound like “I’m thinking about [action]. What do you think?” If your intention was to ask for help, a better worded question would be: “I’m trying to A, and I’m having trouble. So far, I’ve tried B with result C, and D with result E. Now I’m stuck. Any guidance?” Josh gives a few more examples based on what your intention is, like asking for agreement, information, clarification, etc. The goal is to be specific, and give as much context as possible in a concise way. And of course, be polite. — CD